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........[The] SS Robert E. Lee was carrying survivors from sister ships torpedoed in the Gulf, from Trinidad to New Orleans. On the June 30,1942, as it reached just 25 miles from the mouth of the Mississippi River, a German torpedo hit. According to historical accounts, a lookout spotted the torpedo coming in and alerted the steamer's escort, the American submarine chaser USS PC-566. The sub immediately began dropping depth charges. The German U-boat, U-166, which launched the attack, was sunk with no survivors. Its wreck cannot be disturbed, now protected as a war grave for the 52 crew lost. On...

After five years in the shipyard, the first of a new class of Navy amphibious warship set sail today from its Pascagoula, Miss. birthsite for San Francisco, headed for the fleet. LHA-6 will be commissioned as the USS America this October. America has been controversial in the military and on this website. I’ve argued the LHA-6 is a dead end in naval design, because in order to carry more aircraft — MV-22 Osprey tiltrotors, F-35B Joint Strike Fighter jump-jets — it sacrifices the well deck required to launch landing craft and amtracs, which sort of takes the “amphibious” out of...

Brian JonesJuly. 11, 2014The single most important contributor to the U.S.'s military dominance is the country's powerful navy, which gives America the ability to project hard power just about anywhere in the world.(snip) (snip)

The parents who were stranded at sea with their two young daughters and had to be rescued by a U.S. Navy warship say they plan to sue their satellite phone carrier and hope any monetary winnings will allow them to help repay the government's cost of their rescue. “To see people show up to help you like that is pretty amazing,” Eric Kaufman told ABC News, referring to the team from California Air National Guard’s 129th Rescue Wing that parachuted out of a plane into the frigid waters off the coast of Mexico to save his family. Kaufman and his...

In a stunning display of callousness, the Defense Department has announced that thousands of soldiers — many serving as commanding officers in Afghanistan — will be notified in the coming weeks that their service to the country is no longer needed. Last week, more than 1,100 Army captains — the men and women who know best how to fight this enemy because they have experienced multiple deployments — were told they’ll be retired from the Army. The overall news is not unexpected. The Army has ended its major operations in Iraq and is winding down in Afghanistan. Budget cuts are...

BOISE, Idaho - A U.S. Navy veteran filed a civil rights lawsuit Monday after the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery refused to allow her to be buried with the ashes of her late wife. Seventy-four-year-old Madelynn Taylor filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Boise after she tried to make advance arrangements last year to have her ashes interred with Jean Mixner, whom she met on a blind date in 1995 and married in California in 2008 when gay marriage was briefly legal. Though federal veterans cemeteries allow the spouses of gay veterans to be interred with their loved ones,...

SALMON Idaho (Reuters) - A gay veteran who was denied her wish to be buried one day with her late lesbian spouse in an Idaho military cemetery filed a lawsuit on Monday accusing the state of violating her constitutional right to equal protection by not recognizing her same-sex union.

The U.S. Navy has promoted Vice Adm. Michelle Howard to admiral, making her the first female four-star officer in the Navy's 236-year-history, the White House said Tuesday. Howard, who was the first African-American woman to command a Navy ship, will become vice chief of naval operations, according to her online Navy biography. "Her historic career is taking a next step today," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said.

As a flotilla of naval vessels from around the world participates in the Rim of the Pacific Exercise (RIMPAC) to sustain relationships in the maritime community, a century ago this week international navies converged for a remarkably different occasion—to drink the last of the U.S. Navy’s supply of alcohol. On July 1, 1914 the ships of the U.S. Navy officially became dry under General Order No. 99.

Brandon Webb, a former U.S. Navy SEAL and now Editor-in-Chief of SOFREP.com, posted a sobering article today on the failures of the State Department in regards to our former military contractors working overseas. Brandon tells us the story of a CIA paramilitary and former Navy SEAL, Matthew Wojciechowski, who, while on TDY (temporary duty assignment) in ‎the Middle East, endured severe chest pains while on a mission. Instead of the medical professionals at the U.S. Embassy assisting him, they performed a stress test on him, took his vitals and sent him back to work. They denied him further treatment, leaving...

Ali Hassan, a cultural adviser at Naval Support Activity Bahrain, gives a presentation about Islam, the Islamic lunar calender, and about customs and traditions during Ramadan. About 150 personnel at the Bahrain base attended the briefing on Tuesday, June 24, 2014.MANAMA, Bahrain — U.S. personnel accustomed to drinking their coffee on the drive to work will have to put that habit on hold for about a month. It’s one of a few lifestyle changes Americans will have to make during the holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar. Officials expect Ramadan to begin at...

More than two-thirds of America's youth would fail to qualify for military service because of physical, behavioral or educational shortcomings, posing challenges to building the next generation of soldiers even as the U.S. draws down troops from conflict zones. The military deems many youngsters ineligible due to obesity, lack of a high-school diploma, felony convictions and prescription-drug use for attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. But others are now also running afoul of standards for appearance amid the growing popularity of large-scale tattoos and devices called ear gauges that create large holes in earlobes.

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Where is the USS New York? At 684 feet long and displacing over 24,900 tons, the Mayport, Fla.-based San Antonio-class amphibious transport dock is no smart car of the seas. Yet the vessel has gone “dark” for more than a week now. The low profile might have something to do with the fact that the New York is currently home to the recently captured Ahmed Abu Khattala, one of the accused ringleaders of the Sept. 11-12, 2012, Benghazi terrorist attacks that left four Americans dead. While any ship’s location is supposed to be a well-guarded secret when deployed, the New...

India's newly-built anti submarine warfare (ASW) corvette Kamorta is now ready to join the Indian Navy's Eastern Fleet. The warship is slated to be commissioned into the Indian Navy in July at Vishakhapatnam, where a nuclear submarine - Arihant - is also being built indigenously. Now docked at the fitting-out jetty (FOJ) of Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. (GRSE) here, Kamorta - a super-sophisticated frontline warship with stealth features - is readying to sail out to play its role as Indian Navy's newest submarine hunter/killer, a defence ministry statement said Tuesday. It will be the first warship armed with...

Picture it: It's March 1, 2015. Tokyo and Beijing are headed towards what was once the unthinkable. Over the last several months China has instituted daily non-naval maritime patrols around the hotly disputed Senkaku/Diaoyu islands. Beijing is even sending fully-fledged naval assets within the islands' 12 mile exclusion zone while its aircraft carrier, the Liaoning, exercised only 50 miles away from the islands back in February — truly the end of Beijing's small-stick diplomatic strategy. But on 1 March the plot thickens. Two Chinese SU-27 fighters come within 25 feet of a Japanese P-3 Orion surveillance plane just 10 miles...

by Gina Cassini | Top Right NewsThe date has been set - in stone. Circuit Court Judge Margaret Noe has ordered Matthew Hindes to appear in court on Monday, or risk losing full custody of his daughter. There's one problem -- a big one: Matthew Hindes is a Petty Officer in the U.S. Navy, and is currently stationed on a submarine deployed in the Pacific Ocean! Yes, the judge is out of her mind, but it is worse than that. Hindes has had full custody of his daughter since 2010. He received full parental rights when his daughter was taken from...

A U.S. Navy sailor from Washington State is currently serving on a submarine thousands of miles away in the Pacific Ocean, but a judge has ordered him into an impossible custody scenario: Appear in a Michigan courtroom Monday or risk losing custody of his 6-year-old daughter. Navy submariner Matthew Hindes was given permanent custody of his daughter Kaylee in 2010, after she was reportedly removed from the home of his ex-wife, Angela, by child protective services. But now a judge has ordered him to appear in court Monday, or risk losing his daughter to his ex-wife in addition to a...

ADRIAN Being posted on a submarine in the Pacific Ocean does not exempt a father from obeying child custody orders, a judge ruled Monday in Lenawee County Circuit Court.

The Department of Defense celebrates LGBT Pride month in June 2014. Here is the month-long announcement of this fact on an internal website at a U.S. Navy facility: In January 2014, the U.S. Navy celebrates homosexuality via the euphemism of rainbow-colored "diversity." Here is the several-week announcement of this celebration on an internal U.S. Navy facility: The Department of Defense celebrates LGBT Pride month in June 2013. Here is the month-long announcement of this fact on an internal website at a U.S. Navy facility: